Tri County Coalition

The Issue
Imagine waking up every day having difficulty signing a child’s permission slip for a school trip, filling out a bank deposit form, understanding instructions for a new prescription, or completing a job application. Too many Tri-County residents have trouble completing these routine tasks because they do not have adequate literacy skills. Imagine how difficult it is for a child without the necessary pre-reading skills trying to succeed in kindergarten and struggling to keep up throughout all the years of schooling and finally giving up and dropping out! The Tri-County Literacy Coalition is addressing these issues at the root!

Our Solution
Currently, an array of organizations are providing literacy and related services to children before they enter school, to young adults trying to obtain their GED, to individuals in correctional institutions, to the non-English speaking population, and to adults receiving employment training. A coordinated, integrated, well-managed literacy system across out tri-county region is essential to better service families as they try to improve their literacy skills. For such a system to succeed, it must have the support from all of usï¿½ government officials, funders, the business community, social service agencies, educators, community volunteers, literacy providers and the learners themselves.

Literacy goes far beyond being able to read and write. It is a lifelong learning process of understanding and using basic skills across a wide spectrum of knowledge including math, finances, technology, culture, science, health and the workforce.

The Tool for Change: The Tri-County Literacy Improvement Plan
The coalition’s plan will provide the building blocks needed to create an effective, seamless pathway for lifelong learning from early childhood through K-12 and into adulthood. Creating a Literacy Coalition establishes a ‘go-to’ organization for literacy providers and students that would train program developers, research new and best practices, evaluation programs and support quality programs.

What is the Tri-County Coalition?

A community-wide partnership to support improved literacy, community services and service learning.

A collaboration of literacy service providers working together with community stakeholders to make services efficient and effective.

A united and visible voice of the community supporting a vision of 100% literacy.

Coalition Priority

Ensure the literacy levels are raised for children, youth and adults with limited literacy skills, including English as a Second Language (ESL) Learner.

Document the effectiveness and quality of regional literacy services and create a well-coordinated and integrated system for literacy service delivery.

Build strategic partnerships to better serve providers and learners and develop the capacity of the current system to serve more learners.